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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iraq
Index
Figure 3. The Abbasid Caliphate, A.D. 750
Source: Based on information from Philip K. Hitti, Makers of Arab
History, New York, 1968, 56.
Many unsuccessful Iraqi and Iranian insurrectionists had fled
to Khorasan, in addition to the 50,000 beduins who had been sent
there by Ziyad. There, at the city of Merv (present-day Mary in
the Soviet Union), a faction that supported Abd al Abbas (a
descendant of the Prophet's uncle), was able to organize the
rebels under the battle cry, "the House of Hashim." Hashim, the
Prophet Muhammad's grandfather, was an ancestor of both the Shia
line and the Abbas line, and the Shias therefore actively
supported the Hashimite leader, Abu Muslim. In 747, Abu Muslim's
army attacked the Umayyads and occupied Iraq. In 750, Abd al
Abbas (not a Shia) was established in Baghdad as the first caliph
of the Abbasid Dynasty. The Abbasids, whose line was called "the
blessed dynasty" by it supporters, presented themselves to the
people as divine-right rulers who would initiate a new era of
justice and prosperity. Their political policies were, however,
remarkably similar to those of the Umayyads.
During the reign of its first seven caliphs, Baghdad became a
center of power where Arab and Iranian cultures mingled to
produce a blaze of philosophical, scientific, and literary glory.
This era is remembered throughout the Arab world, and by Iraqis
in particular, as the pinnacle of the Islamic past. It was the
second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754-75), who decided to build a
new capital, surrounded by round walls, near the site of the
Sassanid village of city of Baghdad. Within fifty years the
population outgrew the city walls as people thronged to the
capital to become part of the Abbasids' enormous bureaucracy or
to engage in trade. Baghdad became a vast emporium of trade
linking Asia and the Mediterranean
(see
fig. 3). By the reign of
Mansur's grandson, Harun ar Rashid (786-806), Baghdad was second
in size only to Constantinople. Baghdad was able to feed its
enormous population and to export large quantities of grain
because the political administration had realized the importance
of controlling the flows of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.
The Abbasids reconstructed the city's canals, dikes, and reservoirs , and drained the swamps around Baghdad, freeing the city of
malaria.
Harun ar Rashid, the caliph of the Arabian Nights,
actively supported intellectual pursuits, but the great flowering
of Arabic culture that is credited to the Abbasids reached its
apogee during the reign of his son, Al Mamun (813-33). After the
death of Harun ar Rashid, his sons, Amin and Al Mamun, quarreled
over the succession to the caliphate. Their dispute soon erupted
into civil war. Amin was backed by the Iraqis, while Al Mamun had
the support of the Iranians. Al Mamun also had the support of the
garrison at Khorasan and thus was able to take Baghdad in 813.
Although Sunni Muslims, the Abbasids had hoped that by astute and
stern rule they would be able to contain Shia resentment at yet
another Sunni dynasty. The Iranians, many of whom were Shias, had
hoped that Al Mamun would make his capital in their own country,
possibly at Merv. Al Mamun, however, eventually realized that the
Iraqi Shias would never countenance the loss of prestige and
economic power if they no longer had the capital. He decided to
center his rule in Baghdad.
Disappointed, the Iranians began to break away from Abbasid
control. A series of local dynasties appeared: the Tahirids (821-
873), the Suffarids (867-ca. 1495), and the Samanids (819-1005).
The same process was repeated in the West: Spain broke away in
756, Morocco in 788, Tunisia in 800, and Egypt in 868. In Iraq
there was trouble in the south. In 869, Ali ibn Muhammad (Ali the
Abominable) founded a state of black slaves known as Zanj. The
Zanj brought a large part of southern Iraq and southwestern Iran
under their control and in the process enslaved many of their
former masters. The Zanj Rebellion was finally put down in 883,
but not before it had caused great suffering.
The Sunni-Shia split had weakened the effectiveness of Islam
as a single unifying force and as a sanction for a single
political authority. Although the intermingling of various
linguistic and cultural groups contributed greatly to the
enrichment of Islamic civilization, it also was a source of great
tension and contributed to the decay of Abbasid power.
In addition to the cleavages between Arabs and Iranians and
between Sunnis and Shias, the growing prominence of Turks in
military and in political affairs gave cause for discontent and
rivalry at court. Nomadic, Turkic-speaking warriors had been
moving out of Central Asia into Transoxiana (i.e., across the
Oxus River) for more than a millennium. The Abbasid caliphs began
importing Turks as slave-warriors (Mamluks) early in the ninth
century. The imperial palace guards of the Abbasids were Mamluks
who were originally commanded by free Iraqi officers. By 833,
however, Mamluks themselves were officers and gradually, because
of their greater military proficiency and dedication, they began
to occupy high positions at court. The mother of Caliph Mutasim
(who came to power in 833) had been a Turkish slave, and her
influence was substantial. By the tenth century, the Turkish
commanders, no longer checked by their Iranian and Arab rivals at
court, were able to appoint and depose caliphs. For the first
time, the political power of the caliphate was fully separated
from its religious function. The Mamluks continued to permit
caliphs to come to power because of the importance of the office
as a symbol for legitimizing claims to authority.
In 945, after subjugating western Iran, a military family
known as the Buwayhids occupied Baghdad. Shias from the Iranian
province of Daylam south of the Caspian Sea, the Buwayhids
continued to permit Sunni Abbasid caliphs to ascend to the
throne. The humiliation of the caliphate at being manipulated by
Shias, and by Iranian ones at that, was immense.
The Buwayhids were ousted in 1055 by another group of Turkic
speakers, the Seljuks. The Seljuks were the ruling clan of the
Kinik group of the Oghuz (or Ghuzz) Turks, who lived north of the
Oxus River. Their leader, Tughril Beg, turned his warriors first
against the local ruler in Khorasan. He moved south and then
west, conquering but not destroying the cities in his path. In
1055 the caliph in Baghdad gave Tughril Beg robes, gifts, and the
title, "King of the East." Because the Seljuks were Sunnis, their
rule was welcomed in Baghdad. They treated the caliphs with
respect, but the latter continued to be only figureheads.
There were several lines of Seljuks. The main line, ruling
from Baghdad, controlled the area from the Bosporus to Chinese
Turkestan until approximately 1155. The Seljuks continued to
expand their territories, but they were content to let Iraqis and
Iranians simply pay tribute while administering and ruling their
own lands. One Seljuk, Malek Shah, extended Turkish rule to the
countries of the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and to parts
of Arabia. During his rule, Iraq and Iran enjoyed a cultural and
scientific renaissance. This success is largely attributed to
Malek Shah's brilliant Iranian vizier, Nizam al Mulk, one of the
most skillful administrators in history. An astronomical
observatory was established in which Umar (Omar) Khayyam did much
of his experimentation for a new calendar, and religious schools
were built in all the major towns. Abu Hamid al Ghazali, one of
the greatest Islamic theologians, and other eminent scholars were
brought to the Seljuk capital at Baghdad and were encouraged and
supported in their work.
After the death of Malek Shah in 1092, Seljuk power
disintegrated. Petty dynasties appeared throughout Iraq and Iran,
and rival claimants to Seljuk rule dispatched each other. Between
1118 and 1194, nine Seljuk sultans ruled Baghdad; only one died a
natural death. The
atabegs (see Glossary),
who initially had been
majordomos for the Seljuks, began to assert themselves. Several
founded local dynasties. An atabeg originated the Zangid Dynasty
(1127-1222), with its seat at Mosul. The Zangids were
instrumental in encouraging Muslims to oppose the invasions of
the Christian Crusaders. Tughril (1177-94), the last Seljuk
sultan of Iraq, was killed by the leader of a Turkish dynasty,
the Khwarizm shahs, who lived south of the Aral Sea. Before his
successor could establish Khwarizm rule in Iraq, however, Baghdad
was overrun by the Mongol horde.
Data as of May 1988
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